A network environment typically includes hundreds and thousands of network nodes and/or devices, such as routers, hosts, hubs, and switches, capable of delivering information using packets or packet flows from source devices to destination devices. With increasing demand for more information to be transmitted between users/subscribers and content providers, network providers constantly upgrade the network(s) to up-to-date technology with faster high-speed communication links to handle voluminous data files. High-speed communication typically enhances bandwidth and speed for voice, video, and data transmission to/from homes and/or businesses.
With exploding growth of mobile data transfer over a wired and wireless network, wireless providers are transitioning from 2G wireless service to more data intensive 3G or 4G services. Moving or transporting massive amounts of information over a communications network can cause traffic congestions partially due to the fact that the pace of growth in demand for network bandwidth is faster than the improvement of technology that is able to handle the traffic.
To alleviate traffic congestion, network providers implement data transfer metering systems. For example, a metering system offers an option to subscribers who can pick and choose their monthly data upload and download quotas to fit their needs. A problem associated with subscribed data plan, however, is that unlike voice usage, typical subscribers do not know how much bandwidth they have consumed in a given period of time. Since an unlimited data plan is less economically viable, an approach is to have a data plan that offers a certain amount of usage per month and charges additional fees if the usage exceeds the subscribed quota. A drawback associated with this plan is that the subscribers may have a tendency to cut down their usage prematurely due to the fear of overuse that may result in unexpected extra charges, a phenomenon known as sticker shock. In this application, the term “transfer” could refer to data download from a network location to a user, or data upload, from a user to a network location.
Another approach is to have a data plan that offers a certain amount of data transfer per month, and cuts off data service if the data transfer reaches or exceeds the subscribed quota. A problem associated with this approach is that subscribers cut down their usage for the fear of depleting the purchased quota before the end of subscribed time period. As such, simply introducing a cap will discourage user(s) from taking full advantage of their data plans. Furthermore, if may subscribers have the same billing period (for example from the first day to the last day of the month), a policy of cutting off service when users reach their quota could lead to wasted (idle) network bandwidth at the end of the month when many users have used up their monthly quota, and network congestion at the beginning of every month when all users are at maximum bandwidth.